Saturday, August 10, 2013

There is so much unwanted noise in any given day. Fire trucks. Loud, thumpy cars blaring thumpy music. Dogs that bark incessantly. But when one is able to choose the noise that brings happiness to the heart, isn't it amazing? Here are my very favorite noisy moments, mostly from this past year, and one surprisingly quiet moment that allowed me to hear my own thoughts... which is a different kind of noise come to find out. LOL.

Listen To The Music: Local Artist, Playing His Piano On A Cliff In Half Moon Bay, California, February, 2013

Listen To The Sounds Of: Airplanes, Taking Off And Landing Safely, SFO, As Seen From BayFront Park, Brisbane, Ca.

Noises Off...

On the first day that Alan and I had been able to go to San Francisco, to watch Woody Allen film his current movie, "Blue Jasmine" we found the location, and waited about 2 hours before we finally saw him come down the red stairs. I had imagined all day about what it would be like. At first, during a major panic attack I experienced upon arrival, I had imagined there would be all kinds of noise! People yelling his name, his yelling about the woman across the street (me) who dared to wear black pants with a grey shirt. "What was she thinking?" As if he was going to care or something! LOL.

But when the actual time came, and he walked down the stairs the crowd of about 10 or so people, not including Alan and I, was down from a crowd of 30 earlier in the day, made no noise at all. All sound seemed to completely stop. Could it be that all of us who had been standing there, all that time, felt the same way, all at once. Did we all just want to hear his voice. Just a little bit? It was, and probably always will be, one of the most surreal moments of my life! I could literally think and hear my own thoughts... "My God... it's really him, and he's just how I expected him to be! He's Woody Allen!" :)

Can you imagine listening to the sound of silence?

;)

"The first duty of love is to listen."

~Paul Tullich

Mood: Happy

Okay, that's my collection of LISTENING to noises on, and noises off. No go check out what the other participating Robins had in mind for this outing of the Round Robin Challenges! Just click the link above to be redirected to the official Round Robin blog.

Friday, August 09, 2013

"It's never the differences between people that surprise us. It's the things that, against all odds, we have in common."

~Jodi Picoult, House Rules

The picture above is of one of the prettiest areas of San Francisco... Ocean Beach. I love taking lunch down to the beach sometimes, and just watching the surfers or the families playing on the beach. It's also kind of fun to watch ships coming into the bay, through the Golden Gate, which is right around the corner. You can't see the bridge from here, but it's okay, this area is right off Golden Gate park, and it's got it's own charms! If you look very closely at the far right of the photo you will see a white building with a white line, which is actually a suspension bridge that leads to the Point Bonita Lighthouse, which sits on the cliff in Marin County. I have been to Ocean Beach a million or so times over the years, and believe it or not, this is the first time I realized you can see that lighthouse from there! I didn't even notice it the day I took the photo, I noticed it when I was editing! So much for my powers of observation! LOL. Now that I know where to look, I am going to do some additional photography in Ocean Beach, just to see what else I have missed all these years!

Point Bonita Lighthouse
Marin County
November 1st, 2012

:)

Now, way over on the other side of San Francisco someone saw a need a filled it! I ask you, why didn't someone think of a Donut shop and Bar before? How cool is that? Yes, I know there is also a restaurant attached, that apparently never closes, but it's the thought of getting a Gin & Cruller at 4:00 A.M. that really appeals to me! That's brilliant! As long as I wasn't driving of course! And can you imagine a Maple Bar Martini? Oooh... how about a Fuzzy Navel Scone? A Scotch and Jelly? The mind reels with the possibilities! It's brilliant I tells ya!

Thursday, August 08, 2013

Sometimes I think that I don't simply just like San Francisco, I think it is one of my best friends ever! If it is even possible to be friends with a whole city! I love the different neighborhoods, the quirkiness. The taste. The beauty is jaw dropping at times! Even the ugly can be so striking, and so full of emotion, it's difficult to leave behind.

The other day San Francisco made me smile one more time, as it has many, many times in past visits. Alan and I had just finished eating lunch in Golden Gate Park, and were on our way home, when we stopped at a traffic light at the corner of Fulton and Arguello. As we were talking, I glanced out the window and noticed a message, scrawled into a cement slab, a message I had never noticed before, even though I had stopped many times at this particular corner in the past. The message simply said, "I Like You."

And I thought to myself, "Yeah... I Like You Back."

:)

It was just one of those wonderful San Francisco moments, that came along, just when I needed it most. Like a really good friend!

Mood: Inspired

~Me :)

I haven't linked to my friend JR in way too long! I just visited his photoblog, and he has posted some truly fantastic new images! He never stops inspiring me. Go have a look see...

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

"The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? It is the same the angels breathe."

~Mark Twain, Roughing It

I spotted these pretty clouds over Ocean Beach, in San Francisco, yesterday. Oh my, as cold as it was at the beach, I could have stayed there all day, just admiring the clouds, but, alas, there was more public art to be photographed, and the drive home was going to be a long one!

Monday, August 05, 2013

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do you ever feel like you are walking around, carrying a lamp? I do. Especially in the last week or so. Let me explain...

#1. BART FART

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."~Dr. Seuss

Lately, there have been little bursts of stress coming at Alan and I. Some of it has to do with the on again, off again, sometimes looming, BART strike. BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) literally makes the Bay Area go round. So, the freeways, while congested enough, faces the very real threat of becoming significantly worse. There is nothing that can be done. The situation is in the hands of the union, and BART management, who I have NEVER been impressed by. For now, the strike is on hold through this coming work week, as Governor Brown has ordered an investigation into the last 7 days of negotiations. On the one hand... good news... on the other hand... a dark cloud looms, and with it, quick and sudden changes to Alan's schedule.

#2. THE PARENT TRAP

"Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win."

~Stephen King

Sigh. Several years ago, I had to gently help my mother come to the understanding that she wasn't physically, mentally or intellectually able to drive a car any longer. I wrote about the situation on my original AOL Ellipsis blog, in a post titled, "Loving Them Through It." I need to do an Ellipsis Flashback post sometime soon, featuring that post, as I think it might have been one of my very best in the entire 10 years I have been blogging.

Anyway, both my parents are gone now, and there is no need to fret and worry about them. But Alan's parents are both still alive, thank God, because I love them both very much, but like my mother, they are facing the time of life when it's time to begin worrying about their health and well being. But the sticky part of the situation is... they don't want us to worry... so they don't tell us when something goes wrong.

I found out over this past weekend that my parent-in-laws lost a significant... A TRULY SIGNIFICANT sum of money, pretty much their life savings, an amount of money some folks make in a year, when someone that was hired to care for their interests stole it. My Mother-In-Law reported it to the police, a report was taken, but the circumstances are such that it's difficult to prove. I can't say much more than that. But keep in mind, this didn't happen recently, it was almost a year ago, and we just found out this weekend. We found out through a distant relative, that found out a short time ago, and wanted to know if we knew, and see what we could do to help them get it back.

When we found out what happened, Alan and I immediately began Googling agencies and resources, and trying to think of all the possible avenues we could investigate to try and seek both justice, and recoup at least some of the money, but his parents are afraid of retaliation, and therefore will not help in anyway with our efforts. Stress. Age. Frail Health. Need I go on? Mom-In-Law just had surgery for a pacemaker replacement, and will be off her feet for six weeks. Did I mention they live in upstate New York and we live in California? Mom-In-Law called today, crying, and demanding we cease anything we might be doing or try to do to help find the... ahem... asshole skank thief ... who stole their money... as the distant relative calls her.

I have never felt so helpless in my whole life.

Do I honor Mom and Dad or do I go behind their backs and seek justice through the legal system?

I have never felt so helpless in my whole life.

#3. The Traveling Dress

"Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."

~Mark Twain

About 3 weeks ago, I found 2 dresses on an online outlet site. I paid a whopping $14.94 for both dresses, including tax and shipping! One of the dresses is a silver animal print tunic dress, the other is a copper sequined dress, with a silk overlay. If I would have paid full price, the two would have cost well over $300! It was an amazing bargain, and no one loves a bargain more than I do, but there is a downside to ordering bargains, like it taking 3 weeks for the dresses to arrive! The waiting is hard, but watching the dresses as they have gallivanted about the country has been very entertaining. I won't go into details of their itinerary now, I am planing to do a follow up on them later this week, but let's just say, I wish the dresses had the ability to take photos of the cities they visited. LOL.

#4. Excuse Me, Have You Met My Penis?

"Reality continues to ruin my life."

~Bill Watterson, The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

If you have known me for any length of time, you know I am a Progressive/Liberal/Democrat/Bleeding Heart/ did I say liberal? LOL. Several years ago, I became impressed with a certain congressman from New York. Let's call him... Wanthony Aeiner. Just try and crack that code. LOL. Anyway, that very same congressman decided one day that it was a nifty idea to send an... ahem... personal message to a woman he met on Twitter, and not just any old message, he decided to message her is DICK. Well a picture of it anyway. But instead of it being a private message, it turns out the genius posted the picture on his Twitter feed for all to see.

His political life exploded. His private life exploded.

I have never believed that sex scandals should ruin any career, let alone political careers. Let's face it, politicians and sex scandals are as old as politics. So, I figured the politician would get out of the spotlight, take some time off to repair his personal life, learn his lesson, and reemerge, ready to get back to work, and that is exactly what happened. And everything was really going well, and he was even the front runner for the Mayor-ship of Metropolis, and then it happened again, and if possible, his latest escapade is worse then the original DICK pic parade. THE DICK.

So now, a promising career, of a truly talented politician, who I still believe is genuinely committed to helping his constituents, is over because he can't stop being stupid! He is like some kind of Idiot/Savant. But clearly the IDIOT is in charge, while the SAVANT is in a self induced shit storm coma. And here is the thing, in the original scandal, he had a lot of women he flirted with, and or had keyboard sex with. Most of which he met on Twitter. I am on Twitter. I was one of his followers. Yet he never engaged with me once, either before or after the original incident!

Should I be insulted? I mean, I am not 20 anymore, but I am not 90 either. Hmmm. But really, all kidding aside, if he had hit on me I would have been flattered, but bottom lining things, I love Alan, and would never jeopardize us, over the likes of a horny politician. The SCHMUCK. And I would have said so had he asked. Who knows why he never hit one me, maybe it was because I was married, and he has a moral code when it comes to marriage. Yeah... that was probably it! All better now!

Schmuck.

#5. Taking The Lamp For A Walk"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and to high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The other day, while in San Francisco, I saw a lady walking down the street, carrying a lamp. It didn't look like a special lamp, but she seemed to like it. She was probably on her way to have it repaired or something, but who knows? Maybe she simply went for a walk with her lamp. After all, would you try to rob a woman with a large brass object in her hands? LOL. I thought about all the possibilities. Was it a weapon for self protection? Was it a gift from someone she loved? Was it her favorite lamp to read by? Had that lamp been her favorite source of light, when things in her life seemed dim? This week, more than ever, I get the need for repairing things that are broken, rather than throwing them away.

I have met some lamps I have refused to give up on.

Relationships are difficult.

The key is to not give up.

Sometimes all you can do is take the lamp for a walk, and hope everything can be fixed.

Sunday, August 04, 2013

I have such a passion for photography, I don't know if I can choose between nature, or human created artistic subjects. I have seen some sunsets that I couldn't look away from because of their intense colors. Sunsets that look like they had to have been painted by the hand of God, but then I have photographed certain architectural works of art that have captivated me just as much! The pyramid building in San Francisco is amazing, it always catches my eye. I look forward to seeing it when I am in the city. But then there are the faces I encounter at random, like the brides that are sometimes posing for pictures in Golden Gate Park. They never fail to make me feel good inside. I have yet to see a bride, that doesn't have the purest look of love on her face, as she poses with her one and only. I have never seen a bride that cares more about herself in the photos, then her husband. That's love! :) No! It's impossible! I can't decided between the natural world, and man-made. But when you think about it, we come by our imaginative, artistic nature... well... naturally. So, isn't man-made and nature one in the same?